


eclipse - larry au

by kenthedoll



Series: twilight - larry au [3]
Category: One Direction (Band), Twilight (Movies)
Genre: Abuse, Angst, Attempted Murder, Blood Drinking, Bloodletting, Disabled Character(s), F/M, Fluff, Graphic depictions of violence - Freeform, Human Louis Tomlinson, Love Triangle, M/M, Minor Character Death(s), Murder, Pathokinesis, Revenge, Sexual Situations, Strength, Suicidal Thoughts, Telepathy, Torture, Vampire Harry Styles, Vampires, Werewolves, american!louis, enhanced abilities/powers, mentions of m!preg, mentions of rape/non-con, precognition/foresight, speed - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:08:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25651129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kenthedoll/pseuds/kenthedoll
Summary: Louis finds himself surrounded by danger yet again, as Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings, and Victoria continues her quest for revenge. In the midst of it all, Louis is forced to choose between his love for Harry and his friendship with Jacob -- knowing that his decision has the potential to ignite the feud between vampire and werewolf. However, with graduation quickly approaching, Louis is confronted with the most important decision of his life.ORThe Larry version of Stephenie Meyer's 2007 novel "Eclipse" and David Slade's 2010 film of the same name.
Relationships: Alice Cullen/Jasper Hale, Des Styles/Anne Twist, Emmett Cullen/Rosalie Hale, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, mentions of past Johannah Deakin/Mark Tomlinson
Series: twilight - larry au [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1859509
Kudos: 12





	1. prologue

**Author's Note:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTE
> 
> THIS STORY IS A DIRECT COPY OF THE MOVIE "ECLIPSE"
> 
> IT HAS BEEN TRANSFERRED FROM MY WATTPAD ACCOUNT (@ ken-the-doll) BECAUSE OF WATTPAD'S INCREASING RESTRICTIONS

_"Some say, the world will end in fire. Some say, in ice. From what I've tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire. But if I had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate to say that for destruction, ice is also great and would suffice."_

Harry's cool lips against the warmth of my neck suddenly distracted me from my reading. We sat together among the flowers of a meadow, hidden within the forest behind his house. It had been a warm, sunny day, and Harry's skin glimmered whenever it would catch the light, but he didn't seem to mind it all that much right then.

His lips peppered delicate kisses from my collar to my jaw, and as beautifully distracting as he was, I really couldn't afford to get away without studying.

"You know, I've got an English final..." I reminded him, but I quickly lost my train of thought when his hand trailed up the length of my spine, in order to come to rest at my nape. "I gotta focus," I whispered when Harry momentarily met my gaze, but he didn't reply. He simply carded his fingers through my hair and leaned in to catch my lips with his own in a tender kiss.

"Marry me," he moaned softly.

"No," I teased him, despite the way my heart hammered away in my chest. It wasn't even the first time he'd asked me the question, and yet, I was absolutely smitten.

Harry's mouth stretched into an amused grin, but it quickly faded when his gaze fell to my lips again. "Marry me," he insisted.

"Change me," I countered, to which he gave a curt laugh.

"Okay," he gave in, shaking his head. "I will, if you marry me. It's called a compromise."

I smirked at that, before setting my books down and telling him, "let's just call it _coercion_. It's not fair."

Then I slid my palms along his toned chest, in order to reach his shoulders and lay him back against the grass. Harry just laughed again and brought his hands to my waist as I straddled his.

"Marriage is just--" I sighed softly, as I looked down into his golden eyes. "It's a piece of paper."

"Where I'm from, it's the way one says, _I love you_."

"Well, where I come from, at _my_ _age_ ," I smirked, "it's the way one says, _I just got knocked up_."

I sat up then and Harry followed suit, with a confused furrow to his brows. "So, you're worried about what people will think?"

"You know, 2 out of 3 marriages end in divorce."

"Well, I think you'll find the vampire/human divorce rate is a little lower," he bit into his ruby red lower lip. "So, marry me."

"I can't..." I frowned at him then, just to see the look on his face. "I have to be back at 4:00," I added, causing Harry to laugh once more, and the sound of it was like music to my ears.

**\---**

"4:00 on the dot," Mark nodded when I joined him in the living room back home. "That kid trying to brown-nose me now or something?"

"He has a name," I giggled as I plopped down on the couch beside him. "Now he's _too_ punctual for you?"

Mark just sighed and tossed the daily paper onto the coffee table. "Okay. You understand why you're being punished, right?"

"I know," I nodded, any trace of a smile immediately falling from my face. "I put you through Hell."

"Yes, you did," he nodded in affirmation. "But I have other reasons for grounding you... like, uh..." he sighed again, as if to show that he didn't have a nicer way of putting whatever it was that he was about to say to me. "I just want you to get some separation from him."

I refrained from rolling my eyes at that, considering he sounded exactly like Jacob, and I just shook my head before I told him, "dad, there's nothing you can say. Harry is in my life."

"Yeah, I'm gathering that," Mark reached for his typical can of Rainier and took a swig. "Alright, how about this?" he thought aloud then. "I'll make you a deal; You're not grounded anymore, if you use your new-found freedom to see some of your other friends, too, like..." he pursed his lips for a moment before continuing, "like Jacob. He's going through a really tough time right now. His dad's really worried about him... and I remember when that was _you_. You needed a friend and Jake was there."

I knew that trying to reach out to Jacob now was sure to stir things up, but regardless, Mark was right; Jacob was my best friend and I could only hope that he still felt me worthy enough to call him that.

 _"Hey, it's Jake. Leave a message,"_ his voice on the other end of the phone, later that night, made my heart swell with bittersweet memories of the last few times we'd spoken to each other.

Jacob hadn't talked to me in weeks, and I wanted to fix it, but he just wouldn't give me the chance.

When I left the house that night, to see about talking to Jacob in person, I sighed out of frustration when the engine of my truck stalled no matter how many times I turned the key.

So, I sat back against the seat with a huff, but nearly jumped out of my skin when something landed in the bed of the truck with a solid _thud_.

"You scared me," I glared at Harry when I turned to find him sitting in the passenger seat.

"You're going down to the reservation," he said, causing my lips to part and my brows to furrow in confusion.

"How did you even--" then it hit me. "Alice..." I sighed to myself, before I glanced down at the steering wheel, and my brows furrowed again. "Hey, did you do this to my truck?"

"Louis, you have to understand..." Harry began seriously, and I scoffed incredulously in response, "your safety is _everything_ to me."

"Jacob's not gonna hurt me," I said exasperatedly, feeling as though I'd been repeating myself a lot as of late.

"Not intentionally," Harry agreed partly, "but the wolves have no control--"

" _Harry_ ," I stopped him. "I have until graduation to see him..." I shook my head, "and then I'll be one of you, and he'll hate me... _forever_."

"Well, I'm sorry," he replied sadly, but I couldn't find anything more to say to him, so I promptly left the truck in order to go back inside.

**\---**

"Hey, just in time!" Liam greeted me, as I joined everyone in the cafeteria at school with Harry in tow. We sat together, between Liam and Perrie, who were busy discussing her valedictorian speech. "Alright, check it out," Liam began to read a few lines from the papers he'd been holding. _"My fellow students..."_ he said dramatically.

"Cute," Perrie said flatly.

"Right?" Liam smiled before continuing, _"we are the future. Anything is possible, if you just believe."_

"Perfect," Niall teased him, as the rest of us shared a few light-hearted laughs.

"And you've got yourself a speech," Liam slid the pages over to Perrie, who immediately crumpled them up into a ball.

"Yeah, this'll be my speech when I want everyone to throw diplomas at my head," she replied satirically. "So, thank you," she tossed the paper ball at his face.

"You gotta embrace the clichés, Pez," he said simply.

"They are the bread and butter of all valedictorians," Niall added.

"And that is why you're not valedictorian," Jade teased her boyfriend with a playful giggle.

"Pez doesn't need clichés," I chimed in then. "The speech is gonna be epic," I assured her.

"Epic?" her brows raised at that, just as Jasper & Alice suddenly joined us at our table. "It'll _change lives_."

"I've decided to throw a party!" Alice announced enthusiastically, and I felt a warmth in my chest upon witnessing the way Jasper gazed at her with a fond little smirk.

"After all, how many times are we gonna graduate high school?" Jasper added, earning knowing bouts of laughter from Harry and I.

"A party?" Jade seemed interested. "At your place?"

"I've never seen your house," Perrie thought aloud.

"No one's ever seen their house," Niall said.

"Another party, Alice?" Harry raised a brow at his sister indifferently.

"It'll be fun," Alice insisted.

"Yeah. That's what you said last time," I teased her, and she laughed with me for a moment, before her gaze distractedly drifted to the table and her smile immediately faded.

I watched Jasper place a supportive hand on her thigh beneath the table before I glanced up at Harry with a look of concern that seemed to match his own.

He offered me a pursed-lipped smile in response, as if to tell me that everything was going to be okay, though I could tell that neither of us were entirely sure that was the case.


	2. one

"I know you know what she saw," I told Harry, after he'd taken me to Mark's station after school that day. "Tell me."

"It was nothing," Harry shook his head from where he stood beside me, just outside of the building.

"You looked worried..."

He offered a quiet laugh. "Just that everyone would notice how strange Alice is."

I nodded understandingly and light-heartedly replied, "I think that ship sailed long ago," before I glanced inside. "I wonder what's wrong..." I thought aloud as I watched my father speak to a man and woman at his desk.

So, Harry immediately provided me with some answers. "Their son went missing in Seattle over a year ago," he explained. "Mark's doing what he can, but..."

"You know something about this?" I asked curiously.

"We've been tracking the situation in Seattle for a while," he confessed. "Unexplained disappearances... killings..." he shook his head disapprovingly. "If the situation gets any more conspicuous, the Volturi will step in."

My lips absentmindedly parted as I was suddenly forced to recall our time in Italy the year before.

"If they go to Seattle, they could come here..." I swallowed anxiously. "They could see I'm still human--"

"It won't get that far," Harry shook his head again. "But we'll go to Seattle, if we have to--"

"I'll fax these down, first thing," Mark accidentally interrupted when he stepped outside with the parents of the missing boy. 

"Thank you," the father nodded gratefully before making his leave with his wife.

"Hey," Mark greeted us.

"Hey," I offered him a pursed-lipped smile when he proceeded to stare at Harry.

"You ready for dinner?" I asked him.

"Yeah," he answered. "It is still just you and I, right?"

"I'm just dropping him off," Harry explained to Mark politely. "See you later," he hummed to me, before he turned to walk back to his car.

"Bye," I bit into my lower lip, in order to keep from fonding too hard over him in front of Mark.

"Oh! Louis," Harry suddenly turned to face us once more, "my parents wanted to remind you about the airline ticket you got for your birthday."

Marks brows furrowed upon hearing that. "What airline ticket?" he looked over at me expectantly.

"A round trip ticket to see mom in Florida," I explained.

"Well, that was generous," Mark thought aloud.

"It expires soon, so you might want to use it this weekend," Harry told me.

"Well, I can't just drop everything and go," I chuckled softly at that.

"It might be your last chance to see her before you graduate," he added, and the expression on his face in that moment was apologetic.

"Might not be a bad idea," Mark shrugged then. "Get out of town for a couple days... get some distance."

"Yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing mom," I nodded in agreement with him before I looked over at Harry again. "As long as you use the companion ticket."

"Wait. There's two tickets?" Mark asked, and when I just pursed my lips in response, he sighed. "Super. That makes me really happy," he muttered.

I did want to see my mom.

I wanted to know that her life was full and satisfying. 

**\---**

"Aren't you gonna miss this?" she asked me one afternoon, on the back patio of her new home during my visit. "Can't you just feel the vitamin D soaking up in your pores?"

"Yeah, I am gonna miss this," I admitted, as I lay beside her in a lounge chair, beneath the beaming rays of the sun.

"You know, colleges in Florida are a lot sunnier," she told me, and I refrained from rolling my eyes in response, as it was quite typical of her to try and persuade me to stay with her in Jacksonville. "I'm just saying, if you go to the University of Alaska, I'm never gonna see you."

"They have a really great science program," I said, to which she gave me a look.

"You mean, _Harry_ program?" she teased me light-heartedly. "The way he watches you..." she shook her head, "it's like he's willing to leap in front of you and take a bullet or something."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"It's an _intense_ thing," she told me, but her smile widened in the next moment. "You're different with him... he moves, you move. Like magnets."

"I don't know, we're just..." I shrugged, as though to say there weren't enough words to describe what I felt for the honey eyed boy, sitting patiently at the dining table so as to avoid the sunlight.

"In love," my mom finished my sentence for me. "I get it. I just wanna make sure you're making the right choices for _you_ , you know? 'Cause you're the one that's gonna have to live with them."

I sighed quietly, but nodded understandingly.

"Alright," she sat up, "enough with the heavy." Then, she stood up and quickly rushed inside for something. 

When she returned with a large box covered in shiny, purple wrapping paper, I couldn't help but laugh.

"Mom..."

"Congraduation!"

"I didn't want you to spend any of your money," I shook my head as she placed the box in my lap, but nevertheless I opened the box, revealing a quilt made of several old t-shirts. "Are these all our old trip t-shirts?" I gaped in astonishment.

"Mhm!" she hummed enthusiastically.

"Get out," my heart swelled and I unfolded my gift, in order to take a look at all of the different designs.

"I saved them all," she explained. "I thought they'd make a good quilt... keep you warm up in Alaska. Remember this one?" she pointed to one of the shirts. "Ensenada?"

"The Snake Pit," I nodded, feeling a different sort of nostalgia with each design.

"Yeah, but this one is my favorite here," she pointed. "The 3-headed lobster from Maine."

"This is amazing," I shook my head in pleasant disbelief.

"Aw, honey, I'm glad you like it," she cooed. "I just figured, you know, when you get older, have kids, we can add to it. Maybe go visit the world's largest ketchup bottle or something," she giggled, and in order to distract myself from the fact that this was the last time I'd ever be seeing her, I surged forward and embraced her.

"Thanks," I whispered gratefully.

"I'm glad you like it," I could hear her becoming emotional. "Just thought you should have a little piece of me up there in Alaska."

"Mom, I miss you."

"Oh, honey, I miss you, too."

**\---**

"Do you regret going?"

I shot Harry an incredulous look from the passenger seat of his car. It was the Monday following our trip to Florida and Harry had just pulled into the parking lot at school when he asked.

"No," I replied honestly. "It was really great seeing my mom... just really hard saying goodbye."

"It doesn't have to be goodbye," he shook his head.

"Is that why you asked me to go?" I asked him then. "You thought I was gonna change my mind?"

He offered a weak smile in return, "I'm always hoping for that," before his attention was suddenly diverted to his left.

"What?" I asked.

"If I asked you to stay in the car, would you?" He moved to get out then, and I followed suit the second I realized what, or rather _who_ , he'd been distracted by. "Of course not," he sighed as I marched right past him to reach the front steps of the school.

Jacob Black stood from his motorcycle, looking as tall and brooding as ever as he approached us.

"Hey," I tilted my head slightly, as though to silently ask what he was doing here.

"Mark said you left town," his brows were furrowed in confusion as he looked down at me.

"Yeah," I nodded. "To visit my mom. Why?"

"He's checking to see if you're still human," Harry chimed in with an amused smirk that made Jacob's jaw set tight.

"Look, I'm here to warn you," Jacob told Harry seriously. "If your kind come on our land again--"

"Wait, what?" my brows furrowed then.

"You didn't tell him?" Jacob narrowed his eyes at Harry, who shook his head in response.

"Just leave it alone, Jacob," he said, to which I looked up at him expectantly as well.

"Tell me what?" I asked him.

"Emmett and Paul had a misunderstanding," Harry explained vaguely. "It's nothing to worry about."

"Listen to you," Jacob laughed. "Did you lie to get him out of town, too?"

Harry took a step closer to Jacob then.

"You should just leave," he said. "Now."

"He has a right to know. He's the one the redhead wants."

"Victoria?" my brows raised at that and Harry looked like he wanted to implode. "Alice's vision..." I thought aloud then.

"I was trying to protect you," Harry spoke to me quietly.

"By lying to me..." I shook my head at him out of disappointment. "Okay, we're gonna talk about this, but--" I told Harry. Then, I looked back to Jacob. " _You_. Why haven't you called me back?"

"I had nothing to say," Jacob answered simply, before turning to walk over to his bike.

"Well, I have _tons_. Hold on--"

"Hey," Harry reached for my hand. "Louis..."

"Harry, you have to trust me," I shook my head again.

"I _do_ trust you, I--" he replied immediately. "It's _him_ I don't trust."

Even so, I turned back to join Jacob without another word as I felt that Harry had no room to talk, considering the information he'd withheld from me.

As I reached for the helmet on the seat behind him, Jacob smirked up at Harry. "Hey, lose the grin, Jacob. We're just going for a ride," I rolled my eyes and placed the helmet over my head.

"Hold on tight."

**\---**

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" I pursed my lips anxiously as Jacob led me toward Sam's house. "I am the _vampire boy_ , remember?"

"Hey, look who's back!" Embry beamed when he joined us outside, along with Quil, Jared, and Paul.

"What up, Louis?" Quil smirked and I had to admit I was pretty surprised to see that he'd also become one of the pack.

"Quil," I greeted him politely. "You, too?"

"Yep. Finally made the pack," he smiled proudly, earning a playful punch to the bicep from Paul.

"I'm glad you're here, Louis," Embry told me. "Maybe we can get a break from Jake's obsessive inner monologue."

 _"I wish Louis would call,"_ Jared teased Jacob.

 _"I wish Louis wouldn't call,"_ Paul added.

 _"Maybe I should call Louis,"_ Embry chuckled.

 _"Maybe I should call Louis and hang up,"_ Quil shook his head, earning bouts of laughter from all of us but Jake.

"Alright, you can shut up, now," Jacob told them with a tinge of pink to his cheeks.

Then, a girl, who didn't seem much older than the rest of us, joined us outside. Everyone fell silent as she just stared us down with an ice cold glare.

"Louis, this is Leah Clearwater," Jacob introduced us, before adding, "Hal's daughter."

"Hey," I greeted her. "I'm really sorry about your father," I told her sincerely.

"If you're here to torture Jacob some more, feel free to leave," she muttered, before turning on her heel and marching away from the house.

"Fun, isn't she?" Jacob asked me rhetorically.

"Louis!" Emily's voice distracted me from my self-deprecating thoughts as she joined us outside along with Sam. "Hi," she hugged me. "I was wondering when we'd see your face around here again."

"Hey, same here," I smiled as I embraced her.

"Sam, we good?" Jacob asked.

"We're good," he answered as Emily returned to his side and wrapped an arm around his bare waist. "She won't be getting through our line any time soon," he spoke of Victoria.

"Cool," Jacob nodded with a sigh of relief.


	3. two

"So, when did Leah join the pack?"

"Around when her dad died. Her brother, Seth, also phased," Jacob answered, and he pushed his bike alongside himself as we walked toward his garage. "He's only 15... one of the youngest we've had. Sam keeps him home studying, but he's chomping at the bit. I wish it was Leah who'd stay home."

"Oh, come on," I shook my head at that. "Don't be such a guy."

"Oh, no, it's not a _chick_ thing," Jacob chuckled softly. "It's, you know... a _triangle_ thing. We all have to live with the Leah/Sam/Emily pain fest. Wolf telepathy, remember?"

"Wait, so, Sam dumped Leah for Emily?" I asked for clarification, as I had no idea there was even so much drama going on within the pack, considering they always seemed to be a bit too preoccupied with my drama with the Styles.

"Yeah, but it wasn't like _that_ ," Jacob shook his head. "Sam hates himself for hurting Leah... but Emily was the one."

"Yeah, I guess it sort of chooses you sometimes," I spoke from experience.

"But it's more than some crush, Louis. Sam _imprinted_ on Emily."

"Do I even wanna know what that is?" I raised a brow in response, which earned another soft laugh from Jake, while he moved to open up the garage door and lead me inside.

"Imprinting on someone is like..." he pursed his lips for a moment, as he seemed to be thinking it over, "like when you see them, everything changes. All of a sudden, it's not _gravity_ holding you to the planet. It's _them_... and nothing else matters." Jacob's gaze held a bittersweet vibrancy to them as he looked at me then. "You would do anything... _be_ anything for them."

I swallowed at that, suddenly feeling quite guilty, even if I knew it wasn't exactly my fault that I didn't feel for Jacob in that way. "Sounds like you know the feeling..." I thought aloud, and when he remained silent, I curiously asked, "have you... have you imprinted on someone?"

Jacob simply looked me in the eye and sighed. 

"You'd know if I had..." he told me, to which I just pursed my lips. "I just have a direct line to Sam's thoughts."

"So, for now, you're still you," I hummed.

"And you're still you," Jacob offered me a bittersweet half-smile.

"Yeah..." I nodded in affirmation, before I decided to come right on out with it, "until graduation..."

"Graduation?" his brows furrowed out of disappointment.

"You knew this was gonna happen..." I couldn't meet his eyes any longer because the pain behind them was too much for me to bear in that moment.

"Not in a _month_!" he gave a curt, exasperated scoff. "I mean, not before you've--you've even _lived_! Or before I could--" he cut himself off, by picking up a wrench from his tool box and harshly throwing it against the wall at the far side of the garage, causing me to flinch. "For a second, just a _second_ , I thought--but he's got his hooks in you _so deep_ \--"

"I decided this, not him," I said in Harry's defense.

"Louis, they're not even _alive_! It makes me _sick_!" he seethed. "Better you _really_ be dead, than one of _them_ ," he shook his head at me again, before he turned away with a frustrated huff.

"I can't believe you said that..." I couldn't even find much else to say to him in that moment, I was so frustrated, and when he turned to look at me once more, his expression appeared to be remorseful. But even so, I told him, "Harry was right... I shouldn't have come."

"Louis, come on... _please_..." Jacob's brows furrowed sadly. "I'm sorry."

**\---**

"You know, Harry could at least respect meal times," Mark complained, the second I walked in the door that night.

"I was just with Jake," I explained, to which he instantly seemed to perk up.

"Oh. Good!" he beamed, when suddenly there was a knock on the front door, and it didn't take much for him to discern that Harry was on the other side. "I'll just give you two some privacy, then," he moved to lay back down in the living room, so I moved to answer the door.

"Hey," I greeted Harry with a smile, but it faded when I took note of his onyx black irises.

"Do you understand how worried I've been?" he asked me seriously.

"I was perfectly safe," I shook my head.

"I almost broke the treaty to make sure--" Harry's brows suddenly furrowed and I rolled my eyes.

"I know, I smell like a dog. I'm sorry--" I was just about to pull off my jacket and toss it in with the laundry, when Harry cut me off.

"No. Something's wrong," his gaze trailed over to the staircase, and he appeared almost fearful when he began to climb them in order to reach my bedroom.

The first thing he did upon opening the door, was move toward my bed and reach for the dreamcatcher that Jacob had given me, for my 18th.

"Harry, what's wrong?" I asked, as he gently let the beads and feathers slip out of his grasp.

"Someone's been in here."

**\---**

"Who was it?" Desmond asked in concern, after Harry had called for a family meeting and promptly drove me to his place. "Someone we know?"

"Just this stranger," Harry shook his head frustratedly. "I didn't recognize his scent."

"A nomad passing through?" Anne's brows furrowed in confusion, but that possibility didn't seem very probable.

"A passerby wouldn't have left Louis' father alive," Rosalie thought aloud in response, just as their front door suddenly opened and closed, and footsteps could be heard shuffling up the staircase behind us.

"The scent disappeared about 5 miles south of Louis' house," Jasper announced his findings when he reached the top of the steps, having returned from tracking my stalker with Emmett.

"Someone's orchestrating this," Desmond determined then.

"Victoria?" I guessed, seeing as how she had been out there all of this time, just waiting for the opportune moment to strike back.

"I would've seen her decide..." Alice told me.

"It has to be the Volturi," Harry chimed in again, immediately catching my attention.

"I don't think it's the Volturi, either," Alice shook her head at that. "I've been watching Aro's decisions, too."

"So, we keep looking," Emmett decided then.

"We'll also take shifts, guarding Louis at his house," Desmond nodded in agreement with his son's plan.

"Another protection detail?" Rosalie droned.

"Rosalie..." Des shook his head at her.

"No, she's right," I gave a curt laugh, to which Harry's brows furrowed once more. "You can't protect me, watch my dad, _and_ search for the intruder."

" _And_ for Victoria," Rosalie added.

" _And_ keep yourselves fed."

"I'm not leaving you here defenseless," Harry stated.

"Well, I'm not gonna let you _starve_ ," I argued quietly, "and I wouldn't be unprotected. I have--"

"What?" his jaw set then, and I knew he could already tell what I was going to say, even if he couldn't read my mind.

"Jacob..."

**\---**

"Whoever it was, he left his stink behind," Jacob muttered monotonously, when he followed me out of my house the next morning. "It'll be hard to miss when we cross it again. We'll handle it from here," he told Harry, as I moved to stand at the vampire's side.

"We don't need you to handle anything," Harry replied, "or anyone."

"I could care less what _you_ need."

"Alright. We're done here," Harry shook his head in annoyance.

"No, you're done here," Jacob took a challenging step forward, to which I was forced to step between them once again.

"Stop!" I said exasperatedly. "I'm _tired_ _of this_! From now on, I'm Switzerland, okay?!"

**\---**

Harry hated the idea, but it wasn't about rivalry anymore. It was about my safety and Mark's.

In the days that followed, I got them to at least try to work together. The wolves took over so the Styles could hunt. It wasn't exactly an easy alliance.

"Doesn't he own a shirt?" Harry teased Jacob, for being as shirtless as ever, a few days later.

We had just met up with Jacob, so that I could remain under the protection of the Quileute pack, while Harry and his family went out to hunt for food.

"I'm good here," I assured him. "You should go," I encouraged him along, simply because it pained me to see his eyes whenever they resembled twin eclipses. 

It meant that he was starving, and I refused to let that continue, especially if I knew that I could be doing something about it.

"I'm not gonna be gone long," he promised.

"Don't rush," I shook my head. "You need to hunt."

Without another word, Harry leaned in to press a gentle kiss to my lips. His arms wrapped around me in a loving embrace, and he pulled me even closer when he slid a hand up into my hair and deepened the kiss, as though he was never going to see me again.

Considering our current circumstances, I sincerely hoped that wouldn't be the case.

Then, he pulled away and I could still feel the cool tingle of his lips on my own. "Maybe rush a little bit..." I whispered to him then, which earned a ghost of a smile from Harry in response, so I took the small victory as he moved to get into his car.

"Hey, beautiful," Jacob smiled warmly, and then he held his arms out wide for a hug that I immediately walked into.

"Hey," I hummed happily, as the two of them hadn't been fighting anywhere near as often as they had been before, and I was incredibly grateful for that.

The last thing any of us needed right then, was to be turning on one another.

"So, what do you wanna do today?" Jacob asked me curiously. "Bike, hike, just hang? Your call," he said, "but we're going to a party tonight."


	4. three

"Are you sure this is okay? I really hate being a party crasher."

"Technically, you're a council meeting crasher," Jacob corrected me as we steadily approached his pack, who were sitting around a campfire just outside of Sam's house. "See?" he gestured toward the group. "The council leaders are dad, Quil's grandpa, and Sue Clearwater. She took over for Hal when he died."

"Okay, I should not be here," I paused for a moment with an anxious beat to my heart.

"It's okay," Jacob assured me. "They thought it would be good for you to hear the histories."

"The histories? The _tribe's_ histories?" I raised my brows incredulously. "Aren't they secret?"

"We all got a role to play, and you're part of this," he told me simply. "I mean, it's the first time Seth, Leah, and Quil will hear them, too... but you _are_ the first outsider. _Ever_."

"If I had known that, I would have, like--" I pursed my lips exasperatedly. "I dunno... dressed better?" I laughed it off.

"Jake!" an unfamiliar voice suddenly called out to him from near the fire, before a boy was jogging up to us.

"Hey," Jacob greeted him.

"It's about time you got here," he replied with a bright smile and eyes full of wonder. "Paul's been hoovering the grub, but I saved you some burgers."

"Good lookin' out, bro," Jake nodded, before he introduced us. "Louis, this is Seth Clearwater, Leah's brother. Newest member of the pack."

"Hi," I smiled when he reached to shake my hand.

"Newest, bestest, brightest," Seth beamed.

"And _slowest_ ," Jake teased him light-heartedly, ruffling the boy's short dark hair for good measure.

"Come on, your dad's about to start," he giggled adorably.

"Okay."

Then Seth led Jacob over to the circle of lawn chairs, so I followed suit, and Billy began to educate both myself and the newest members of the pack.

"The Quileutes have been a small tribe from the beginning, but we have always had magic in our blood," he smiled proudly. "We were great spirit warriors, shape-shifters that transformed to the powerful wolf. This enabled us to scare off our enemies and protect our tribe."

"One day, our warriors came across... a _creature_. It looked like a man, but it was hard like stone and cold as ice. Our warrior's sharp teeth finally tore it apart, but only fire would completely destroy it. They lived in fear that the cold man was not alone... and they were right."

"His mate took her vengeance out on the village. Our elder chief, Taha Aki, was the only spirit warrior left to save the tribe, after his son was killed. Taha Aki's third wife could see that he would lose. The third wife was no magical being, with no special powers but one... _courage_. She drew her knife and pierced it through her own chest."

"The third wife's sacrifice distracted the cold woman long enough for Taha Aki to destroy her. She saved the tribe," Billy nodded seriously. "Over time, our enemies have disappeared, but one remains... the cold ones. Our magic awakens when they're near and we sense it now. We feel the threat in our blood. Something terrible is coming, and we must all be ready... _all_ of us."

**\---**

_"Seattle is in a state of terror. Police are baffled by the escalating murders and disappearances. Theories range from a vicious new gang to a wildly active serial killer."_

"It's getting worse," Desmond sighed somberly, before he pointed the remote toward the television in the living room of the Styles' house, and promptly shut it off. "We're going to have to do something."

"It takes more than one of our kind to cause the damage they're reporting," Jasper spoke up, from where he sat beside his father on the couch. "Quite a few more... and they're undisciplined, conspicuous..."

"It's newborns..." Harry thought aloud then, to which my brows furrowed in confusion.

"What, like new vampires?" I guessed.

"It's the first few months after the change," Harry explained to me.

"That's when we're at our most uncontrollable," Jasper added. " _Vicious_... insane with thirst."

"Something to look forward to," Emmett light-heartedly teased me from the recliner, but I had to admit that the information was a little unsettling.

"No one's trained these newborns, but this isn't random," Jasper cut through Emmett's humor with a stern expression.

"Someone's creating an army," Desmond sighed.

"Well, now we're _definitely_ going to Seattle," Emmet said in determination, as he suddenly got to his feet.

"An _army of vampires_?" I asked with a brief laugh, somewhat in disbelief. 

I could only hope that they were kidding.

"And they've been created to fight someone," Jasper nodded.

"We're the only clan even close to Seattle," Harry shook his head with a frustrated sigh.

"Regardless of _why_ they were made, if we don't put a stop to them, the Volturi will," Desmond told him, before his brows furrowed in thought. "I'm surprised they've let it go on this long..."

"Maybe they're behind it," Harry suggested on a whim, before he confessed, "in Italy, I read Aro's mind... he wants me and Alice to join him, but he knows we'll never choose him, as long as our family's still alive."

"An army could solve that for him," Jasper muttered distastefully, and I was still trying to wrap my head around it all.

**\---**

"Hey," I greeted my dad in the kitchen, when I got home that night. 

He'd been staring down at a hefty stack of paperwork and several copies of the missing persons posters that he'd been spreading all over town. 

A headshot of a kid named Riley Biers was printed on each one. The last time anyone remembered seeing him, was last spring.

"Did you eat dinner yet?" I asked him, and then he finally looked at me.

"Uh, no... I haven't," he answered honestly, before he focused back on his work, and I frowned at the look of guilt on his face in that moment. 

His cases had always taken a toll on him, but missing persons seemed to take the most. He wouldn't eat, and he'd rarely sleep, until he found the answers he was looking for.

"This kid, Riley Biers... disappeared over a year ago," he told me, sliding a copy of his portrait across the table, toward me. "His poor parents have been papering Seattle with these things ever since."

"You think they should just give up?" I asked him curiously, as he seemed to be feeling quite defeated already.

"Well, _I_ wouldn't," he shook his head in response, "if it were you. Not _ever_."

**\---**

"I have to figure out what to tell people..." I said to Harry, as we laid with one another on my bed, after I'd eaten dinner with Mark. "Why I won't be home for Christmases, why I won't visit, and..." I pursed my lips, while my fingertips absentmindedly traced over the design of one of the t-shirts in the quilt my mother made me, "why they'll never see me again."

Harry was quiet for a moment, as he seemed to be thinking it over, before he bitterly mumbled, "after a few decades, everyone you know will be dead. Problem solved."

I gave him a look of disappointment then. 

"Why are you so against me becoming like you?"

"I've told you," he replied, just above a whisper.

"Be honest with me..." I requested. "There's more."

"I know the consequences of this choice you're making," Harry told me with a voice like molasses. "I've lived through it... and to let you suffer that..." he trailed off, as if to silently say that he wouldn't be able to stand it. "You believe I have a soul. I don't... but to risk _yours_ , just for the sake of never having to lose you? That's the most selfish thing I'll ever do."

"I thought that you were afraid that I'd be too different..." I countered, before I slid my palms along his chest and cuddled a little closer to him. "You know, like, I wouldn't be warm... and I wouldn't smell the same."

A tiny amused smile spread across Harry's ruby lips at that.

He gently tilted my chin upward, in order to look me in the eye when he promised me, "you'll always be my Louis." 

Then, he leaned in to seal it with a kiss that I easily melted into because I was really just as malleable as putty in his hands.

"My Louis," he repeated, after he pulled away and cradled my head against his chest, "just less fragile."


	5. four

"So, Alice has planned a big graduation party," I explained to Jacob the next day. The Styles had gone out to hunt again, therefore, as I wandered the rez at Jake's side with a hopefully smile, I added, "which you're invited to."

He didn't say anything and his expression wasn't very telling either, but it was pretty obvious that he wasn't interested.

"Yeah, I figured that," I chuckled softly, and he managed a smile for me, but even so, I could tell there was something else on his mind. "What?" I asked him, pausing in my tracks in order to look up at him curiously.

"I just wanted to do this differently..." Jake answered vaguely, "smoother... but now I'm out of time."

"Do what?"

"You need to hear the truth, Louis," Jacob took a confident step toward me then, "understand all your options... and you need to know, that _I'm in love with you_... and I want you to choose _me_ instead of _him_."

I swallowed past the feeling of guilt that was creeping its way up my spine, and I dropped my gaze from his when I replied, "I thought you understood... I don't feel that way for you--"

"I don't buy it," Jacob replied simply, causing my brows to furrow incredulously.

"What don't you buy?" I shook my head at that. "That's how I feel."

"You feel something else for me. You just won't admit it," he spoke as though he knew me better than I knew myself. "So I'm not giving up. I'm gonna fight for you... until your heart stops beating," he added the last bit through gritted teeth.

So I muttered in response, "well, then you're not gonna have to fight for long--"

"You're rushing into it because you're afraid you'll change your mind," Jacob interrupted.

"No, I'm not," I argued as-a-matter-of-factly, staring him straight in the eye. "I know what I want."

He took another step forward. "You wouldn't have to _change_ for me, Louis... or say goodbye to _anybody_. I can give you more than him," he promised. "I mean, he probably can't even _kiss_ you without hurting you."

He reached for my hand then, and before I could even respond, he raised my palm up to his chest.

"Feel that?" he asked, as I could feel his heart pounding away beneath my touch. "Flesh and blood and _warmth_."

Then, once again, before I could respond, he was dipping his head down and catching my lips with his own. His hands moved to cup my face as he kissed me once more, then twice more, before I finally shoved him away from me.

I shook my head at him, as if to silently ask what had gotten into him, before I drew my fist back and swung on him out of frustration, only to practically break my own hand in the process, considering his entire body seemed to be cut from stone.

"Ah!! _God_!!" I hissed, attempting to shake the pain from my injured fist, before I protectively clutched it in my free hand. Jacob immediately moved to try and help, but I backed away from him with an exasperated glare and another helpless groan of agony.

**\---**

The first thing Jacob was met with when we returned to my house that night, was the firm grip Harry placed on his shoulders, as he had been waiting for our return.

"If you _ever_ touch him against his will again--!" Harry seethed.

"Harry! Don't do this here!" I pleaded tiredly, but it was no use it seemed, as they proceeded to argue over me as they were one to do. However, Jacob's response had me rolling my eyes as well.

"He's not sure what he wants!"

"Let me give you a clue!" Harry rebutted. "Wait for him to say the words!"

" _Fine_!" Jacob tilted his head, "and he _will_."

"Jacob!" I snapped at him then. "Just _go_ , okay?!"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Mark's brows furrowed when he stepped outside to figure out what all the commotion was. "Easy, guys! Easy," he separated the pair with a gentle hand to each of their solid chests, and I was grateful that they at least followed _Mark's_ request. "Let's take it down a notch. Alright?"

As Jacob and Harry continued to glare at one another, Mark raised a brow and fixed the two of them with an expectant look.

"What's going on?"

Harry's jaw remained set tight, so Jacob began to explain.

"I kissed Louis," he confessed, earning matching looks of surprise from both Harry & Mark, before he added, "and he broke his hand..."

Mark's brows furrowed at that, to which he glanced over at my embarrassed face, then down to the hand that I instinctively proceeded to cradle against my chest.

"...punching my face," Jacob finished. "Total misunderstanding."

**\---**

"It's just a sprain," Desmond informed me, while he wrapped my hand and wrist, that same night. "It should heal fairly quickly."

"Trying to walk and chew gum at the same time again, Louis?" Emmett teased me for my clumsiness, as he and Jasper suddenly joined us, Harry and Rosalie, in Desmond's home office.

I just chuckled at that, before I explained, "I punched a werewolf in the face," with a playful smirk.

"Badass," Emmett's smirk mirrored mine. "You're gonna be one tough lil' newborn."

"Tough enough to take you on," I teased him, which resulted in the way Rosalie stood from the couch at the far side of the room, and abruptly left the room.

"Don't worry about it," Emmett shook his head at me, knowingly.

"Got any leads?" Harry asked Jasper then, as Desmond finished wrapping my hand, and I decided it would be a good idea to speak with Rosalie.

"No sign of the intruder," Jasper answered, as I stood from my seat and moved to find the blonde, "but Victoria continues to make appearances."

"Go blather to someone else about the joys of becoming a newborn," Rosalie muttered simply, when I found her gazing thoughtfully, through the window in the kitchen.

"Okay," I nodded, as I hesitantly joined her side. "Rosalie... I don't understand what I did to make you hate me so much..." I spoke quietly.

"Hate," she scoffed softly. "I don't _hate_ you. I don't particularly _like_ you, but..." she shrugged, before she uttered four words I never thought I'd ever hear leave her mouth.

"Louis, I _envy_ you."

"What...?" I asked just as quietly, unable to help the tiny smile that spread on my face because of it. "That's ridiculous."

"No, it's not," Rosalie said seriously, causing my smile to immediately dissipate. "You have a _choice_. I didn't. _None of us_ did, but _you do_ , and you're choosing _wrong_. I don't care how miserable your human life is," she shook her head sadly.

"My life is not miserable," I told her. "I mean, it's not _perfect_... nobody's life is _perfect_ \--"

"Mine was," Rosalie smiled for the first time in, what seemed like, ages. "Absolutely perfect. There were things I still wanted... to be married, with a nice house, and a husband to kiss me when he came home... a family of my own."

Then, I stared at her in wonder, as she now seemed to trust me enough to explain her story to me.

"Royce King was the most eligible bachelor in town," she began, "I barely knew him... but I was young. I was in love with the idea of love."

I absentmindedly bit into my lower lip, as I could feel her words as if I spoke them myself.

"On the last night of my life... I left a friend's house late. I wasn't far from home..." her voice shook, and as she explained to me what exactly this Royce King and his gang of miscreants did to her that night, I felt a twinge of anger pierce through my chest as well as a sense of sympathy. "They left me in the street... thinking I was dead."

I shook my head sorrowfully at that.

"Believe me, I wanted to be," Rosalie said, just above a whisper. "Desmond found me... he smelled all the blood. He thought he was helping me."

"I'm sorry," I whispered to her sincerely.

"I got my revenge on them," the corners of her lips twitched upward the slightest bit, "one at a time... saved Royce for last, so he'd know I was coming..."

She explained how she showed up to his hotel as a newborn, dressed to the nines in the dress she'd planned to wear for their wedding, and unabashedly proceeded to soak the pristine white fabric of it with the crimson red of his blood.

"I was a little _theatrical_ back then. Things got better, after I found Emmett, but we'll always be this; Frozen... never moving forward. That's what I miss the most... possibilities... sitting on a front porch somewhere. Emmett, gray-haired by my side, surrounded by our grandchildren... their laughter."

I nodded along understandingly as she expressed her deepest desires aloud. "I understand that that's what you want, but there's _nothing_ I'm ever gonna want more than Harry..." I said softly.

"You're wrong again," Rosalie told me. "After you've been changed, there's _one_ thing you'll want more... one thing you'll _kill_ for."

It didn't take much for me to discern what exactly it was that she was speaking about.

"Blood."

**\---**

**[JANE'S POV]**

"They've already drawn too much attention," Demetri sighed, as we stealthily observed the army of newborns that had been terrorizing the city of Seattle as of late.

"So has our inaction," Felix quipped from my right, as Demetri, and my brother, Alec, stood at my left. "Others may begin to question the Volturi's effectiveness."

"Let them," I replied simply, to which Felix turned away from the scene with a distasteful expression.

"Maybe we should consult with Aro," he muttered, as if to suggest that they shouldn't have to listen to me. Because of this, I turned to him and promptly brought him to his knees, with the way I'd bent his top half backward without even having to lift so much as a finger.

His face contorted in pain, as I continued to hold him in the unnatural position.

"Aro's decisions are being watched," I countered, before I finally let him go, and he sighed a breath of relief while he got to his hands and knees. " _We_ must decide."

"Then decide, sister," Alec told me. "It's time."

"Yes, it is," I agreed as I turned to face the ravenous newborns once more. "Either we let them do what they were created for, or we end them... decisions, decisions."


	6. five

_"When we were five, they asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. Our answers were things like; astronaut, president, or--in my case--a princess. When we were ten, they asked again. We answered; rockstar, cowboy, or--in my case--a gold medalist. But now that we've grown up, they want a serious answer. Well, how about this? Who the hell knows?"_

_"This isn't the time to make hard-and-fast decisions! This is the time to make mistakes! Take the wrong train and get stuck somewhere. Fall in love... a lot. Major in philosophy because there's no way to make a career out of that. Change your mind, and change it again, because nothing's permanent. So make as many mistakes as you can! That way, someday, when they ask what we want to be, we won't have to guess... We'll know."_

**-** **Forks High School,** **Class of 2006** **V** **aledictorian,  
** **Perrie Edwards**

**\---**

"You made it!" Jade and Perrie greeted me with a hug at Alice's graduation party.

"Hey! What did you think of my speech?" Perrie asked me curiously once she pulled away. "Too easy-breezy? Too self-helpful? You hated it?"

"No. I think you pretty much nailed it," I told her sincerely.

"Yeah?" her face lit up from the appraisal, causing my smile to widen fondly. "It's like I was born to lead, right?" she giggled.

"Oh, I love this song! Let's go!" Jade grabbed Perrie hand and pulled her into the living area of the Styles' house, where several of our classmates were drinking and dancing to Muse, one of my favorite bands.

So I turned to find Harry, but as I wandered past the staircase, I was suddenly met with Jacob, Quil, and Embry.

"What are you doing here?" I asked Jacob quietly.

"You invited me," he replied with a confused expression, "remember?"

"Was my right hook too subtle for you? That was me uninviting you."

"Look, Louis, I'm sorry..." he began, "about, you know... the kiss and your hand..." He sighed to himself. "I'd blame it on the whole inner animal thing, but it was really just me being an ass... I'm really sorry."

I just bounced my brows knowingly in response. 

Then he told me, "I brought you something... a graduation present. I made it myself," before he held up a chain bracelet with a tiny wooden wolf charm.

"Wow," I breathed, as he set it in my palm. "You made this? It's really pretty... thanks," I told him sincerely, just before I took note of Alice, who suddenly came to a halt on the steps behind Jacob. 

"I'll be right back," I told him, then I moved to find out what had caused Alice to freeze up. "Alice? What did you see?"

"The decision's been made," she told me, just as Jacob joined my side at the bottom of the steps.

"What's going on?" he asked quietly.

"You're not going to Seattle...?" I guessed.

"No," Alice answered. "They're coming _here_..."

**\---**

"They'll be here in four days," Alice informed everyone later on in the night, after the party had ended and everyone had finally gone home, with the exception of myself and the wolves.

"This could turn into a bloodbath," Desmond thought aloud.

"Who's behind it?" Harry questioned.

"I didn't see anyone I recognized," Alice said. "Maybe one."

"I know his face," Harry nodded then, as he could seemingly picture the face of the leader within Alice's thoughts. "He's local; Riley Biers... but he didn't start this."

"Whoever _did_ is staying out of the action."

"They must be playing with the blind spots in your vision," Desmond told her.

"Either way, the army is coming," Jasper spoke up from Alice's side, "and there aren't enough of us to protect the town."

"Hold up," Jacob shook his head in confusion. "What damn _army_?"

"Newborns," Desmond answered simply. "Our kind."

"What are they after?" Embry asked.

"They were passing around Louis' scent," Alice sighed, as if to say it was quite typical--because it was--but even so, I glanced up at her in confusion as well. "A red shirt," she explained in detail.

"They're after Louis?" Jacob's jaw set. "What the hell does this mean?"

"It means an ugly fight," Desmond told him, "with lives lost."

Jacob took one look at Embry and Quil, who nodded affirmatively, before he said, "alright. We're in."

"No," I immediately declined. "You'd get yourselves killed. No way."

"I wasn't asking for permission," Jake told me softly, as if to show that he wasn't trying to pick a fight.

I just shook my head with a sigh. "Harry?" I asked him to speak up.

"It means more protection for you," he reluctantly admitted after a moment.

"Jacob," Desmond captured his attention once more. "Do you believe Sam would agree to an understanding?"

"As long as we get to kill _some_ vampires," Jacob shrugged honestly.

"Jasper?" Desmond asked for his opinion.

"They'll give us the numbers," he replied. "Newborns won't know they even exist. That'll give us an edge."

"We'll need to coordinate."

"Desmond," I shook my head in protest at that. "They're gonna get hurt--"

"We'll _all_ need some training," he told me. "Fighting newborns requires knowledge that Jasper has. You're welcome to join us," he said to Jacob.

"Alright," Jake glanced at me, before he moved to shake Desmond's hand. "Name the time and place."

"Jake, you don't know what you're getting yourself into..." I all but begged him not to do this. I didn't feel that I was worth the life of one person, let alone _several_ people, and _especially_ not my best friend.

"Louis..." he said, "this is what we do. You should be happy. Look at us, working together. You _are_ the one who wanted us to get along. Remember?"

**\---**

Harry eyed the charm bracelet on my wrist when we joined hands the next morning.

"It's a graduation present," I vaguely explained, as we approached the rest of the Styles coven out in the woods behind their property.

The Quileute pack joined us soon after; All of which arrived in wolf form.

"Hey, Jake..." I gave the tan-furred wolf boy a timid wave, which he obviously didn't return, but he gave a brief huff to show that he heard me.

"They don't trust us enough to be in their human forms," Harry told us, having read their minds.

"They came," Desmond offered a pursed-lipped smile. "That's what matters. Will you translate?" he asked Harry, who simply nodded and follow the older man toward the pack.

"Welcome," Desmond greeted them, before getting right down to business. "Jasper has experience with newborns. He'll teach us how to defeat them."

The pack stared at the pale, blonde man with curiosity.

"They want to know how the newborns differ from us," Harry said.

"They're a great deal stronger than us," Desmond explained, "because their own human blood lingers in their tissues. Our kind is never more physically powerful than in our first several months of this life."

With that, he nodded toward Jasper, who moved to take over from there.

"Desmond's right. That's why they are created," he said. "A newborn army doesn't need thousands, like a human army, and no human army could stand against them. Now the two most important things to remember are, first, _never_ let them get their arms around you--they'll crush you instantly--and second... _never_ go for the _obvious_ kill. They'll be expecting that... and you will lose."

As the pack growled amongst themselves, Jasper turned to face the rest of us.

"Emmet," he called for the brawny man to join him in the clearing before us. "Don't hold back," he smirked once they faced each other and finally squared off.

"Not in my nature," Emmett's smirk mirrored his, before he sprinted straight for Jasper. 

He lifted the slightly smaller man off the ground before attempting to throw him downward, only for Jasper to plant himself firmly against the gravel and swipe Emmett's feet out from under him, letting him fall to the ground with the wind knocked from his chest.

"Never lose focus," Jasper stared down at him with a cocky grin.

Next, when Desmond faced off against Harry, I watched on with a nervous bite to my lower lip as Desmond lifted Harry and tossed him a few feet away. He came sprinting back in an instant and, with a hand at the center of Desmond's chest, Harry easily slammed him to the dirt.

He smiled for the first time in what seemed like forever, but as he glanced up at Jasper with an expectant look, Jasper told him, "and one more thing," right before Desmond got to his feet and tackled Harry to the ground, " _never_ turn your back on your enemy."

A few more pairs faced off against one another, but as Jasper & Alice seemed to almost dance with one another along the ground, as they swung their fists and promptly dodged each attack, I couldn't help but feel envious of the eternal bond they had.

In that moment, Jacob came to stand tall at my side, to which I offered him a bittersweet half-smile, as I had sort of been forced to accept the fact that, "some of you are gonna get hurt... some of you could get _killed_ because of me."

Jacob shook his head at that, but even so, I couldn't help but feel like, "it's gonna be a hundred times worse than this, right?" as I gestured vaguely toward the group of vampires and werewolves that were still sparring off against each other in the space before us.

Jacob just bowed his head then, so I reached to gently scratch between his ears, which earned a satisfied hum from him in response.

However, as Harry suddenly approached, Jacob quickly took the unenthused look on his face as a hint to get a move on, to which he reluctantly walked away.

"Done for the day," Harry muttered to me, as he walked straight on toward his car, leaving me to sigh to myself in silence until Jasper came walking by.

"Jasper," I caught his attention. "Are you sure there's nothing I can do to help?"

"Well, your presence alone--your scent--will distract the newborns," he told me. "Their hunting instinct will take over and drive them crazy."

"Good. I'm glad," I nodded with a ghost of a half-smile, as I was suddenly reminded of the bravery of the old Quileute chief's third wife, who had sacrificed herself in order to save their tribe.

He turned to walk away then, but I gently reached for his arm before he could get too far.

"Hey. How do you know so much about this?" I asked him curiously.

"I didn't have quite the same upbringing as my adopted siblings," he answered with a brief purse of his lips, before he raised the sleeves of his jacket and proceeded to show off his ivory forearms, which were scarred with bite marks in several places.

My lips parted in wonder at the sight, and I immediately raised the sleeve of my own jacket, in order to show him my own similar scar that I'd received from James. 

"Those scars are like mine."

"Battle scars," he told me. "All the training the Confederate Army gave me... was useless against the newborns. Still, I never lost a fight."

I gaped at him in astonishment. "This... this happened during the _Civil War_?"

"I was the youngest major in the Texas cavalry," he answered proudly, and I suddenly felt like I'd been walking around with an ancient war relic, "all without having seen any real battle."

"Until...?"

"Until I met a certain immortal... Maria," he filled in the blank for me. "I was riding back to Galveston, after evacuating a column of women and children when I saw them... I immediately offered them my aid."

He explained how he came across three young women who appeared to be in some sort of trouble--two of which, were newborns that helplessly followed Maria's every command--but had only been lying in wait for their next meal to come along. 

She told Jasper that she hoped he would survive the attack, for he may be of great use to her.

"Maria was creating an army?"

"They were very common in the south," Jasper said. "There were constant brutal battles for territory. Maria won 'em all. She was smart, careful... and she had me. I was her second in command. My ability to control emotions served her well; I trained her newborns... an endless occupation since she never let them live beyond their first year."

I swallowed thickly at that, but nevertheless, he continued.

"It was my job to dispose of them... I could feel _everything_ _they felt_..." his brows furrowed sadly. "I thought what Maria and I had was love... but I was her _puppet_. She pulled the strings. I didn't know there was another way... until I found Alice."

I smiled at him then, especially at the sight the ruby-lipped grin that spread across his face in that moment, at the thought of his current lover.

"Now, she'd seen me coming, of course," he chuckled fondly.

"You kept me waiting long enough," Alice's voice captured both of our attention, as she suddenly joined us. 

"My apologies, ma'am," Jasper reached for her hands, and as they gazed at one another with nothing but adoration and content, he told me, "I don't know what I'd have become without her..."

"Shh..." Alice quietly shushed him. "You never have to be that again," she assured him, before she stood on her toes to seal her promise with a kiss.

Oh, how I envied them.


	7. six

"What is it?" Harry cooed, from where he'd been sitting next to me in my bed, as I slept that night.

I'd just woken up from a nightmare about, "the intruder... the newborn army? They're all her puppets..."

However, Harry raised a brow in confusion, so I explained further.

"It's Victoria."

"Alice would've seen if she wanted to make an army..." he shook his head.

"Unless she's hiding behind them and she's letting someone else decide..." I replied, "and I'm not just gonna hide while you're out taking all the risks for me."

"If it's Victoria involved, I need to keep you as far away from the fight as possible."

"Jasper said that I could be of help--" I tried, even if I already knew Harry would protest, which he did.

"We won't need your help. With the wolves in this, it's an easy win," he said. "The rest of us aren't gonna have enough to do."

"Okay, either it's _so dangerous_ that I have to hide, or it's _so easy_ that you're gonna be sidelined. Which is it?"

Harry just smirked at that. "It's dangerous for you, easy for us."

"Well, I think it's dangerous for us to be apart..." I told him, as I absentmindedly watched my fingertips trace shapes along his pecs through his t-shirt. "How many times do we have to prove that? I'll be worried, you'll be worried, and we'll both be that much more vulnerable."

Harry seemed to think it over for a moment, before his next response took me aback completely because he said, "okay, you're right."

"So I'm coming with you," I concluded.

"No. We both stay away together."

"I can't make you choose between me and your family," I shook my head.

"The only way I can protect you, is to be with you."

**\---**

"You're not fighting?" Jacob prompted when we met him, along with Jasper, in the makeshift baseball field behind the Styles' property. "Did you pull a muscle or something?" he teased Harry. 

"He's doing it for me, okay?" I said, in Harry's defense, before any sort of argument could ensue.

"Whatever," Jake sighed, before he looked to Jasper instead. "Just tell me the plan."

"This field will give us an advantage in battle," Jasper told him. "We need to lure the newborns with Louis' scent, but it needs to end here."

"Harry & I are going to a campsite," I added then. "Even if he carries me, they'll still pick up on our scents."

" _Your_ stench, however, is _revolting_ ," Harry told him.

"Dude, you really don't wanna start comparing stinks," Jacob laughed at that.

"What he means, is that your scent will mask mine, if you carry me," I explained further.

"Done," Jake nodded without hesitation.

"This is not a good idea..." Harry mumbled under his breath.

"Harry," Jasper gave him a look then. "They won't want to get anywhere near his odor."

"Okay, let's just try it," I rolled my eyes at their passive-aggressiveness, as I closed the space between myself and Jacob, so that he could lift me off the ground bridal-style with ease.

" _Eau de Wolf_ comin' up," Jake joked.

"Run," Harry droned, so he did.

**\---**

"So you gonna ask me to sit out of the fight, too?" Jacob asked me, once we were deep enough within the forest for him to stop running. "Or don't you care about _my_ safety?"

" _Of course_ , I care," I fixed him with an incredulous look. "But you'd say no."

"I won't have a choice, anyways," Jake shrugged it off. "Since I let Sam be Alpha male, I gotta live with the shots he calls."

I raised a brow at that. "Since you _let_ Sam be Alpha?"

He gave a modest little shrug, before he explained, "I didn't wanna be in a pack _at all_ , let alone be its _leader_."

"Wow... Chief Jacob..." I thought aloud in astonishment, which caused him to smile for the first time in (what had felt like) forever.

"Opted out," he shrugged again. "But every choice has its consequences... some more than others--"

"Don't start," I rolled my eyes, as I already knew where he was going with this. " _Everybody_ makes choices. You're gonna have to _accept_ mine."

"But you can love more than one person at a time," he argued. "I've seen it... with Sam, Emily, and Leah."

"Well, I'm not a _wolf_. I can't _imprint_."

"It has nothing to do with _imprinting_ ," he paused on the trail to look down at me. "It has to do with... _feeling something_ for somebody," he said, "and I _know_ you feel _something_ for me... I can sense how I make you feel, physically. I make you nervous."

"Jake," I scoffed quietly at that, unable to meet the intensity of his brown-eyed gaze any longer.

"Don't worry," Jacob gave a soft chuckle, as he continued walking. "I promised I wouldn't kiss you again until you asked."

"Yeah, well, you're gonna be keeping that promise for a while, chief," I offered him a pursed-lipped smile and a firm pat to the chest.

**\---**

"Okay, Alice. Don't be a stranger!" I heard my dad saying to Alice, as I stepped out of my truck, and they both descended the front porch steps of our house the next day.

"Okay," she smiled at him sweetly, before she turned to face me, and Mark turned to go back inside. "Your alibi for the battle is all arranged," she informed me.

"Really?"

"I told your father that our whole family's going camping this weekend," she explained. "So you and I are having a sleepover at my house! Mark's going fishing, anyway."

" _Mark_?" I hummed in amusement. "You guys are on first name basis now?"

" _Me_ , he likes," Alice smirked in response. "Actually, you and Harry will have the house to yourselves tonight."

I raised a curious brow at that. "Like... _alone_?"

"We're all going hunting. Powering up before the battle," she answered, so I nodded understandingly, before she added a playful little, "you're _welcome_!"

**\---**

"Well, the _sister_ , I like," Mark chirped from where he'd been scrubbing at the dishes in the sink when I joined him in the kitchen.

"Alice. Yeah, she's great," I nodded in agreement. Then, after a moment of peaceful silence, I curiously asked, "hey, dad? I was wondering... how come you didn't get remarried? After mom?"

"Uhm..." he sighed, before he shrugged with a soft chuckle, "I dunno... guess I still haven't met the right gal. Why?"

"I dunno..." I shrugged as well. "I thought you might've just given up on the whole institution of it... of _marriage_... but do you think there's any value in it?"

"Yeah," he nodded simply. "Yeah, marriage has value... when you're _older_ \-- _much_ older. Like with your mother," he began, "it seemed to work out fine for her the second time around, _later on_ in her life..."

"Yeah, I guess..." I said quietly, as it was clear that he was adamant about me waiting a bit before I go dropping to one knee; Which would be completely understandable, if it wasn't for the context.

"I mean, you definitely don't wanna have to get married because you weren't... careful."

"What...?"

Mark gave me a knowing look then. "Look, you know what I'm talking about... there's things you need to think about if you're gonna be physically intimate--" he cringed at his word choice, just as I did.

"Okay..." I backed away from him. "Please don't have _the talk_ with me."

"It's just as embarrassing for me as it is for you," he assured me.

"I doubt that... and don't bother, 'cause mom beat you to it like 10 years ago..."

"Well, you didn't have a boyfriend 10 years ago."

"I'm sure things work the same way," I laughed at that despite my embarrassment.

"Alright, so... you guys are _taking precautions_ and--"

"Okay, dad? Please, just _don't_ worry about _that_..." I shook my head because even if I wanted to make a move on Harry like that, "Harry is... old school."

" _Old school_..." Mark pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Great. What's that, like, _code_ for something?"

"Oh, my God, dad," I sighed exasperatedly, before I reluctantly admitted, "I'm a virgin."

"Okay, good. Glad we covered that..." he awkwardly scratched his nape.

"Me, too," I told him, as I made my way over to the steps, so I could pack up some clothes to bring to Harry's house.

" _Virgin_..." I heard him thinking aloud to himself. "I'm liking Harry a little bit more now."

**\---**

"What's wrong?" Harry asked me when I showed up on is doorstep later that night.

"Nothing," I answered with an honest grin, feeling all of my inhibitions float away the instant my blue eyes met his gold.

 _Clair de Lune_ reverberated softly throughout the entirety of the house while he led me upstairs, but just before we reached his bedroom, Harry suddenly paused and turned to me.

So I watched curiously as he reached for my hand, carefully turned it over, and clipped a clear, heart-shaped gemstone onto the charm bracelet Jacob gave me.

"It seems only fair that I be represented as well..." he explained the unexpected gift.

"It's really pretty," I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks as I said it. "Thanks..." I smiled up at him.

Then, he took my hand in his and led me into his bedroom, where a king-size bed now lay, against the wall, off to the right.

"There's a bed," I thought aloud in pleasant surprise.

"I thought you might need one to sleep in," Harry told me, to which I offered him another grateful smile, for his thoughtfulness.

"I think an air mattress would've sufficed..." I chuckled softly, while I took a seat on the left side of the bed.

"Is this too much?" Harry smirked at that.

"No," I shook my head. "It's perfect," I assured him. "But I wanna ask you something..."

"Anything," he replied.

"Okay... marriage is the condition for you to change me yourself, right?"

Harry offered me an amused expression when he moved to sit next to me on the mattress. "Yes..." he answered.

"Okay. Well, I wanna negotiate my own condition..."

"Anything you want," Harry nodded, with sincerity in both his voice and his gaze, when I turned to face him completely, "it's yours."

"You promise...?" I asked, as I leaned in a little closer.

"Yeah."

"Okay..." I slowly closed the space between us to meet his lips with my own.

He let it happen--even let me get a brief taste of the tip of his tongue--before he was leaning away.

"Louis... no..."

"You said you wanted me to have every human experience...?"

"Not ones that will risk _killing you_ ," he answered seriously.

"You won't," I shook my head in confusion at that, "and everyone says that once I'm changed, all I'll want is to slaughter the whole town..."

"That part doesn't last forever," Harry shook his head as well.

"I want you..." I told him quietly, "while I'm still _me_... while I still want you this way."

"It's too dangerous..."

" _Try_..." I encouraged him. "Just try... I'll go to some ridiculously expensive college and let you buy me a car..." I jokingly attempted to sway him, which got him to smile again, and I really didn't want to watch the light leave his eyes in that moment.

"I'll marry you..." I added seriously, and his ruby lips parted in wonder, while I hesitantly reached to cup his face in my hands. "Just try...?"

To my delight, he let me lie him down and kiss him, again and again--a little faster, a little harder.

I even undid the buttons of his shirt, and moved to do the same with my own, until he stopped me.

"Stop trying to take your clothes off..." he muttered against my lips.

"You wanna do that part?" I asked because I had assumed he just wanted me to slow down, but then he was leaning away from my next kiss.

"Not tonight..."

"You--You mean, you don't..." I tried my best not to think that it was just _me_ he had a problem with, but it was difficult. "That's fine..." I shook my head, and when I moved to sit up, he quickly followed suit.

"Hey..." he reached to hold onto my charmed hand, so I timidly met his gaze once more. "Believe me. I want to... I just want to be married to you first..."

I felt relief washing over me upon hearing that, but even so, "you really make me feel like I'm some sort of villain trying to, like... _steal your virtue_ or something..."

Harry laughed at that, "it's not _my_ virtue I'm concerned about," so I gave him an incredulous look.

"Are you _kidding_?"

"It's just _one_ rule I wanna leave unbroken. It might be too late for _my_ soul, but I _will_ protect _yours_ ," he vowed, despite the amused expression I wore because of it. "I know it's not a modern notion..."

"It's _not_ modern," I nodded in agreement. "It's _ancient_."

He offered a half-smile at that. "I'm from a different era," he said. "Things were... a lot less complicated."

"If I would've met you back then, I would've _courted_ you," he continued, "we'd have taken _chaperoned strolls_ and drank iced tea on the porch..."

Harry smiled at the thought of it, before he was standing from the mattress altogether. "I may've stolen a kiss or two, but only _after_ asking your father's permission."

"I would've gotten down on one knee..." he slowly knelt down before me, and I could feel my heart beating in my throat, when he reached for my hand, "and I would've presented you with a ring."

In the next instant, Harry reached into his front pocket, before he gently placed a black, velvet box in my palm.

"This was my mother's..." he told me and, while I'm sure that I appeared completely dumbfounded, Harry looked visibly nervous when he continued, "Louis Tomlinson, I promise to love you every moment of forever..."

All of the time we'd spent talking about the possibility of a forever with one another, and here he finally was, well on his way to making my wildest dreams come to fruition.

"Would you do me the _extraordinary_ _honor_... of marrying me...?" he asked.

However, my decision had already been made, long before we ever even met.

Fate had been what finally brought us to one another.

This was meant to be.

I was sure of it.

" _Yes_."

My eyes helplessly welled with tears of joy, but Harry didn't seem to mind, as he immediately scooped me up into his arms and proceeded to pepper my entire face with gratefully affectionate smooches.

" _Of course_ , I'd marry you, Harry..."


	8. seven

"You're going overboard," Harry gave a nervous chuckle, as he watched me swipe a bit of my blood against the leaf of a tree in the woods, after I'd pricked my fingertip with a pocketknife.

"If this is all I can contribute, I wanna be thorough," I nodded determinedly.

"The newborns'll be frantic," he assured me with a grin, but it fell the slightest bit when he reached for my hand and glanced down at my bloody fingertip.

"It's okay," I told him, as I politely removed my hand from his. "Don't make yourself uncomfortable."

"It doesn't bother me anymore," Harry shook his head at that.

"Since when?"

"Since I spent 24 hours thinking you were dead," he answered bluntly, before he noticed, "you're not wearing your ring...?"

"I didn't want to risk losing it..."

"Or risk Jacob seeing it," Harry concluded with a knowing smirk.

"I think we should wait to tell him..." I admitted then. "I mean, at least until after the fight."

"If you're having second thoughts--" he began with an aura of dismay about him that made my heart ache.

"I'm not," I interjected sincerely. "I just... want him to have a clear head."

"Whose head is unclear?" we heard Jacob ask as he approached us.

"Nobody's, I hope," I offered him a pursed-lipped smile in response.

"Alice says there's a storm coming," Harry warned him then.

"Yeah, I can feel it," Jake nodded understandingly, before he looked back at me and nodded his head toward the trail leading up the mountain. "We should get going."

So Harry dipped his head down to kiss my forehead once, then twice. "I'll see you in a couple of hours," he said, before he turned to find another trail.

"Somethin' up?" Jacob asked, as we watched him walk away.

"Bunch of vampires trying to kill me," I answered with a sigh, before I turned to lead him deeper into the woods.

"Same ol', same ol'."

**\---**

"Thank you," Harry said to Jacob, after we reunited a few hours later at the peak of the mountain, where the Styles had prepared a tent for us to stay overnight.

"You should get back before the storm hits," I told him, as Harry wrapped an arm around my shoulders to hold me close.

"No, I'm staying," Jake said. "You'll need my connection to the pack to keep tabs on what's goin' on."

"You're not gonna fight?" I raised a confused brow at him.

"Seth will spell me in the morning. He's not happy about missing the action, but it'll keep him out of trouble."

"Let's get you inside," Harry told me then, but as he led me over to the tent, Jacob remained standing outside, watching the sun set over the distant horizon.

**\---**

Ever the psychic visionary she was, Alice was right about the storm and, by nightfall, I was absolutely freezing.

"I should've chosen a site lower down," Harry frowned, as my teeth chattered and my entire body shook with the chill of the storm outside, even beneath the thick layer of blankets I was under.

"No, it's fine," I said. "I'm okay."

"What can I do?" Harry asked me then, before he abruptly turned his head toward the zipped entrance of the tent.

"I can't sleep with all that teeth chattering going on," Jacob said the second Harry opened it to let him inside.

Once he was in, Harry immediately zipped the tent but, as Jake glanced down at me with a compassionate expression, Harry shook his head and told him to, "forget it."

"He may need his toes someday," Jacob argued with Harry about whatever it was that he'd been thinking a second ago, "and let's face it; I'm hotter than you."

By then, it was obvious that Jake planned to warm me up, but with the way Harry immediately grabbed his bicep, it was _also_ pretty obvious that Harry wasn't very comfortable with that.

"Get your hand off me," Jacob glared at him.

"Keep _your_ hands off _him_ ," Harry countered.

"D-Don't fight," I scolded them weakly.

"If he gets sick, it's on you," Jacob muttered, causing Harry to sigh in annoyance, before he reluctantly nodded his head, giving Jake permission to lift the blankets and lie beneath them, as a way to keep me warm. "Wow... you're _freezing_ , Louis. Relax. You'll warm up soon."

I nodded understandingly, focused solely on avoiding hypothermia, as I scooted a bit closer and rested my beanie-clad head against his shoulder.

"Faster, if you took your clothes off," Jake added, as he stared up at Harry with a smug little grin that had me sighing a visible breath into the air before me.

" _Jake_ ," I chastised him.

"Survival 101."

**\---**

**[HARRY'S POV]**

"Could you at least _attempt_ to control your thoughts?" I asked Jacob rhetorically, as I sat by myself on the opposite side of the tent, watching him cuddle up to Louis as he slept.

It frustrated me that I couldn't provide that warmth for him myself, but nevertheless--even as I practically tortured myself by choosing to listen in on his thoughts--I appreciated Jacob's concern for Louis.

Jake was a good friend. Be that as it may, I couldn't help the possessive glare I wore as I looked at him then.

"I _really_ get under that ice-cold skin of yours, don't I?" he droned quietly, so as to not wake Louis. "What, are you doubting his feelings for you?"

When I didn't reply, he shook his head.

"Nice," he said sarcastically. "So pickin' through _my_ brain's okay, but letting _me_ into _yours_? Forget it. Look, I know he's in love with you."

"Good," I nodded.

"But he's in love with me, too. He just won't admit it to himself."

I scoffed at that, before I confessed, "I can't tell if you're right."

"Then let me ask you somethin'; If he chooses me--"

"He won't."

" _If_ _he did_..." he began again, "would you try to kill me?"

"That's an intriguing idea," I admitted with a curt laugh. "But, no. I couldn't hurt him like that."

"So you'd just turn him into a _blood-sucking demon_ , like _you_?"

"I don't want that," I shook my head. "I _never_ wanted that."

"So stop him."

"I _tried_. I _left_ \--"

"But you gave up too quickly," Jake replied. "If you'd stayed away another 6 months, I could've made him happy. Trust me. You _have_ to consider that I might be better for him than you are."

I gave a brief, self-deprecating laugh at that. "I _have_ considered that. I know you can protect him... that you can give him a life--a _human_ life; That's all I want for him. But I'm not... I'm not gonna force him into anything _ever_ again. The last time I tried, it almost killed us both."

"Yeah... that I remember," Jake sighed softly, before he curiously asked, "when you thought he was gone... that you'd _lost_ him... how did you cope?"

"There are no words..." I shook my head once more. "But I wouldn't wish it on _anyone_ , Jacob."

He looked away then, so I told him, "this might sound odd... but I'm glad you're here."

Jacob cracked a smile at that. "Meaning, _as much as I'd love to kill you, I'm glad he's warm_."

"If we weren't natural enemies, and you weren't trying to _steal my reason for existing_..." I smirked as I reluctantly said, "I might actually like you."

"Well..." he began, "if you weren't planning on _sucking the life out of the boy I love_ , I might--no. Not even then," he shook his head, admittedly earning another quiet laugh from me. "But he could still change his mind, you know."

I nodded understandingly.

"Then I'd let him go."

**\---**

**[LOUIS' POV]**

"Hey, Seth," I greeted the smaller wolf the following morning, after I woke to find that Harry & Jacob were no longer in the tent with me. "Where's Jacob? Did he already--"

"Not yet," Harry answered as he came speeding through the trees, leading Seth to wander away from us. "He's checking to see if the woods are clear before he goes."

"I'm really sorry about last night," I told him. "That couldn't have been easy on you..."

"It definitely won't make my list of top 10 favorite evenings."

"You have a list?"

"All 10 I've spent with you," Harry said. "Number 1 is when you said you'd marry me, Mr. Styles."

"I at least want to hyphenate my name," I giggled at that, despite the way my cheeks flushed bright pink when he leaned in to kiss me.

"You're _marrying_ him?"

Both of us craned our heads at the sound of Jake's disgruntled tone of voice.

"Jake, I--" I frowned, before I looked over at Harry and realized, "you knew he was listening!"

"He deserves to know," he didn't even try to deny my accusation, and that's when Jacob turned to leave.

"Jake, stop!"

"Louis, let him--" 

Harry reached for my hand, but I quickly looked back and snapped at him, "don't!" before I rushed to catch up with Jacob. "Jake, stop! Please!"

"I'm _done_!" he declared. "I'm _so_ done!"

"W-What can I do?"

"You can't do anything," Jacob shook his head at me, like a disappointed father. "I can... by going out there and killing something."

"No! You're not thinking clearly! Don't do that!" I begged.

"Maybe I'll get myself killed and make it simple for you."

" _No_!" I shouted. "Just--Jake, _stay_."

"Why?!" he asked me then, before he took a step closer. "Give me one good reason."

"Because I don't wanna lose you," I replied, as if it was obvious.

"That's not good enough."

"Because you're too important."

"Still not good enough," he turned to leave again.

" _Jacob_!!" I called desperately, making him pause in his tracks. "Kiss me..." I said. "I-I'm asking you to kiss me..."

Then, without hesitation, Jacob was turning on his heel, cupping my face in his warm hands, and kissing me at the edge of the cliff we stood upon, like we'd be dead the next day.

"That should've been our first kiss..." he thought aloud, before he pulled away from me completely. "I gotta go, but I'll be back."

I stood there in silence as he made his leave, but when I returned to the tent to find Harry standing there with a look of hurt etched into his features, I swallowed thickly as I said, "you saw..."

"No, but... Jacob's thoughts are pretty loud..."

"I don't know what happened..." I shook my head in confusion.

"You love him," Harry said softly.

"I love you more."

"I know," he smiled at me, just before Seth came running back up the trail with a huff, to which Harry read his thoughts and announced, "it's starting."

**\---**

As we remained standing upon the snowy mountaintop, Harry informed us that, "Jacob just got there. He's good," to which I sighed to myself out of relief, as I could only imagine the chaos that was ensuing amidst the fight against the army of newborn vampires.

"Someone's hurt?" I guessed when Harry's eyes suddenly widened.

"She's close. I can hear her thoughts," he said, in regards to Victoria, before he turned and said, "Seth, go," leading the young wolf to scamper down the trail and join the fight.

"She knew we weren't there, but she caught my scent," Harry shook his head self-deprecatingly, as I immediately joined his side. "She knew you'd be with me."

"She found us," I breathed.

"She's not alone," his brows furrowed in confusion and, as a blonde man, dressed in all black, came strolling toward us through the trees, Harry reached for my hand and took a protective step in front of me.

It was the missing boy from Seattle, Riley Biers.

Judging by his pale skin and bright red irises, it was clear that it was him that Victoria had been using as a pawn, just as she had been using the others.

"Riley, listen to me," Harry began, "Victoria's just using you to distract me. She knows I'll kill you."

As if on cue, I nearly jumped out of my skin when the redheaded woman suddenly appeared at Riley's side.

"In fact, she'll be glad she doesn't have to deal with you anymore," Harry added.

"Don't listen, Riley," Victoria told him. "I told you about their mind tricks."

"I can read her mind. I know what she thinks of you."

"He's lying."

"She only created you and this army to avenge her true mate, James," Harry said, making Riley's brows furrow as he glanced over at Victoria. "That's the only thing she cares about. Not you."

"There's only you," Victoria feigned innocence as she looked back at Riley, "you know that."

"Think about it," Harry tried his best to convince Riley that he was being used. "You're from Forks. You know the area. That's the only reason she chose you. She doesn't love you."

"Riley, don't let him do this to us... you know I love you."

So Riley craned his head to look at Harry once more.

"You're dead," he uttered, before he lunged forward, only to be knocked to the side and dragged around by Seth in the next instant.

Just as suspected, Victoria cowardly fled the scene, rather than attempting to avenge the boy she claimed to love so dearly.

"You won't get another chance like this again!!" Harry shouted after her as she ran, leading her to stop and face him with an incredulous look.

"You want him!" Harry stepped toward her with his jaw set and brows furrowed in anger. "You want me to feel the pain you felt when I killed James... when I _tore him to pieces_..." he seethed, "when I turned him into _ash_... when I turned him into _nothing_!"

With that, Victoria lunged at him as well, pushing him aside and heading straight for me, before Harry ripped her away from me with ease.

As they continued to grapple one another, I ran for cover behind a nearby tree, when Riley kicked Seth into a boulder and came bounding after me instead.

Before he could get very far, however, Harry launched Victoria several feet away, then immediately moved to take down the newborn vampire.

He grabbed the younger man by the hair at the back of his head, and proceeded to bash his face into the ground, leaving jagged cracks in his skin, like shattered porcelain, upon impact.

Then, Victoria was putting Harry into a chokehold, causing me to panic as I watched Riley stand from the snow.

While he drew both of Harry's arms back and brought him down to his knees, Victoria reached for Harry's head, just as I pulled my pocketknife from my jeans.

The second I dragged the sharp side of the blade across my forearm, my wrist and my hand became soaked with the deep red shade of my blood; Something I knew would drive the newborn mad.

As Riley became distracted by the scent of it, Harry was able to break free from the strength of his hold and, quite literally, throw him to the wolves.

Seth snarled viciously while he tore into Riley's shoulder and began to drag him away.

"VICTORIA!!!" he called for her, but she obviously couldn't care less, as she turned away from him to go after Harry instead. " _VICTORIA_!!!" he cried out.

Neither of them were long for this world, it seemed, as Seth ripped the newborn to shreds, while Harry got his hands around Victoria's neck and cracked her skin.

Then, he bore his fangs and took a bite out of her throat, just as he'd done to James, leaving her body to fall and her head to break off, much like a marble statue.

Harry panted as he made his way over to me, tore a bit of fabric from my shirt, and brought my arm up in order to wrap it up.

"Something's wrong," I said, when Seth came running back to us with a timid whimper a moment later.

"Alice needs us to go," Harry told me, before he pulled a Zippo from his pocket and lit it with his thumb and, as he dropped the flaming lighter onto Victoria's lifeless figure, he said, "now."


	9. epilogue

"How long?" Harry asked Alice, when we joined his family at the bottom of the mountain.

"A few minutes. Maybe 10?" Alice guessed, as the Styles stood before a pile of burning bodies; The bodies of the newborns they'd killed in our absence.

"The pack needs to leave," Desmond said. "The Volturi won't honor a truce with the werewolves."

Before Harry could even move to let the pack know, his gaze was snapping toward the sound of footsteps among the tree line. 

A surviving newborn made his presence known with a snarl, to which Leah Clearwater attempted to take him down on her own, which was _definitely not_ a good idea, even in wolf form.

As Jasper said during their sparring lessons, _"never let them get their arms around you. They'll crush you instantly."_

"LEAH, DON'T!!!" Harry shouted, as he broke into a speedy sprint towards her, because the vampire almost immediately got his arms around her neck.

Luckily Jacob was close enough to tackle the newborn away from Leah.

However, in doing so, Jacob was eventually grabbed all the same, only in his case, the newborn squeezed him around his middle until a few of his ribs cracked, leading Jake to whimper out of pain and fall to the grass.

"JACOB!!!" I rushed to his side, as he phased back into his human form, but continued writhing in agony.

Des and Harry were at his side in an instant.

"Jacob, hold on. Desmond's gonna take care of you," Harry assured him and, to my pleasant surprise, he actually seemed really worried about Jake.

"The bones on the right half of his body are shattered," Des said, as he ran his fingertips along different parts of Jacob's body to assess the damage.

"Louis..." Jake breathed as I dropped to my knees before him.

"Jake, I'm right here," I nodded, just as Sam and the rest of the pack approached us in their human forms as well.

"Jacob, you idiot, I had it!!" Leah shouted at him.

"Leah!" Sam snapped at her, before he joined us at Jake's side.

"I need to set the bones before his accelerated healing kicks in," Desmond said, as he lifted Jacob's arm and began to bend it, causing him to wince. "It's already starting."

"We need to get him out of here," Harry shook his head, as the rest of the pack, as well as the Styles, watched on in concern. "We're not gonna win a fight with the Volturi."

"We'll take him back to Billy's," Sam declared.

"I'll be there as soon as I can," Des assured him.

"Hang in there, Jake," my eyes welled with tears, as I stood from the grass to allow the pack enough room to lift him up and carry him away.

"It's okay," Sam attempted to console him, as he groaned from momentarily being jostled around. "We got you."

"They're coming!" Alice warned us, and so, as the wolves led Jacob to safety, I stood at Harry's side among his family, as four members of the Volturi approached us shortly after Alice's warning.

Felix, Demetri, Alec, and his twisted twin sister, Jane.

"Impressive," Jane said, upon removing the hood of her cloak, leading the others to do the same. "I've never seen a coven escape an assault of this magnitude intact."

"We were lucky," Desmond nodded.

"I doubt that," she countered with a straight face.

"It appears we missed an entertaining fight," Alec smirked.

"Yes," Jane droned. "It's not often we're rendered unnecessary."

"If you'd arrived a half hour ago, you would have fulfilled your purpose," Harry spoke up then.

"Pity," Jane tilted her head, before glancing to the right and humming, "you missed one," to which we all followed her line of sight to a young girl, of maybe 15 years, that stood just behind us.

I hadn't even noticed she was there until then, but it was clear that she had been a part of the newborn army, as her skin was pale and her eyes, of course, were crimson red.

Jasper immediately moved to her side, taking a protective stance, as Desmond explained how, "we offered her asylum in exchange for her surrender."

"That wasn't yours to offer," Jane told him, before she looked to the girl once more and asked, "why did you come?"

Without even giving the girl a chance to speak, Jane brought her to her knees without even physically touching her. We were all forced to listen and watch as she screamed at the top of her lungs from the pain Jane mercilessly inflicted upon her.

"Who created you?" Jane asked her then, as if she would even be able to answer whilst being tortured.

"You don't need to do that," Anne shook her head distastefully. "She'll tell you anything you want to know."

"I know," Jane smiled and, after the newborn girl's screaming dissipated into anxious gasps for air, we all turned our heads when she began to speak.

"I-I don't know who created me! Riley wouldn't tell us! He said our thoughts weren't safe!"

"Her name was Victoria," Harry told Jane with furrowed brows. "Perhaps you knew her?"

"Harry," Des turned to his son, just as Jane narrowed her eyes at him. "If the Volturi had knowledge of Victoria, they would've stopped her. Isn't that right, Jane?"

"Of course," Jane replied, before turning her head to her left and carelessly ordering, "Felix," to kill the newborn vampire.

"She didn't know what she was doing!" Anne tried. "We'll take responsibility for her."

"Give her a chance," Desmond pleaded.

"The Volturi don't give second chances," Jane replied stoically, leading Harry's arm to subconsciously tighten around my waist. 

"Keep that in mind," she said, as she stared directly at me. "Caius will be interested to know that he's still human."

"The date is set," I told her, to which she look to the newborn once more. 

"Take care of that, Felix," she said. "I'd like to go home."

There was nothing any of us could've done to save her.

Harry said we wouldn't win a fight against the Volturi.

So we disdainfully allowed Felix to push his way through us to get to her, all before he grabbed her by the arms and ripped her apart, limb from limb, saving her head for last just to make it that much slower.

And all the while, Jane just smiled.

**\---**

"Hey--"

I'd barely managed to get the word out because, as soon as I pulled up to Billy's house and climbed out of my truck, I could hear Jacob screaming from somewhere inside the house.

The entire pack was standing out front, with looks of horror etched upon their faces, as they could hear Jacob's thoughts as well as his cries of pain.

Billy reached for to hold onto the back of hand, when I joined his side and placed a supportive palm upon his shoulder, and my heart shattered all over again when he helplessly began to cry, as there was nothing he could do for his son in that moment.

"It's been goin' on for a while..." Quil frowned.

"Doc's re-breaking his bones..." Embry informed me.

"Why did he have to butt in?" Leah shook her head frustratedly. "I could've taken that--"

"Oh, give it a rest, Leah," Paul dismissed her, just as Jacob finally stopped screaming, and Desmond & Sam eventually joined us out front.

"The worst is over," Des assured us. "He'll be alright."

He approached Billy with compassion in his gaze and his voice, "I gave him some morphine, but his body temperature will burn it off soon. I'll come back to set up a drip."

"Thank you," Billy nodded to him sincerely. 

He even reached a hand out for Desmond to shake and, when Des respectfully moved to do so, it felt quite bittersweet considering the circumstances.

Then, Desmond was turning to look at me. 

"He's asking for you," he told me.

So without hesitation, I walked inside and rushed to Jacob's bedroom, to find him lying in bed, covered in sweat, with his arm and his chest covered in the bandages he'd been wrapped in.

"Hey, Jake..." I said softly, as I walked in and knelt down by his side.

"Hey..." he breathed, looking visibly and understandably exhausted. "I was worried about you," he said, which took me aback for a moment.

" _You_ were worried about _me_?" I asked him with a brief incredulous laugh.

"Yeah... I guessed Harry would read my thoughts. Was he hard on you?" he said, in regards to our kiss.

"He wasn't even mad at me..." I answered honestly, despite how confused I still was about the situation, "or you..."

"Well, damn..." Jacob bounced his brows in pleasant surprise upon hearing that. "He's better than I thought."

"He's not playing a game..." I shook my head at that.

"Louis," Jacob sighed. "He's not as perfect as you think."

"I know who he is..." I replied, before I shook my head once more. "Can we just-- _not_ talk about that?"

"I'd rather get all the re-breaking done at once," he said, to which I could no longer bring myself to meet his sorrowful, brown eyed gaze. "Well, at least I know I did everything I could. It wasn't easy making you admit your feelings for me."

"I only fought them because I knew they wouldn't change anything," I admitted to him then, to which he took a deep, shaky breath, before he spoke again.

"I'm _exactly_ right for you, Louis..." he sniffled. "It would be as easy as _breathing_ , with me..."

"You know I love you..." I swallowed thickly, as I couldn't help but feel like I was beginning to lose him again.

"You know how much I wish it was enough..." he offered me a pursed-lipped smile.

Unable to think of anything that I could do or say to alleviate the situation, I slowly stood and asked, "should I come back...?"

"I need some time," Jake told me. "But I'll always be waiting..."

"...until my heart stops beating," I nodded with a similar smile, before I turned to leave him be.

"Maybe even then..." Jake added at the last second, leading me to glance back at him with, what I could only hope came off as, a hopeful expression.

**\---**

"November 24th?" Harry asked me for clarification, as to why I'd picked that specific date to be turned.

"Yeah," I nodded affirmatively, from where I sat upon his lap, among the meadow behind his house. "It's a month before my birthday. I don't need to be another year older than you... and Alice said she could get the wedding together by then."

"I'm sure she can," he laughed as he nodded in agreement. "But there's no rush..."

"I've chosen my life," I said determinedly. "I want to start living it."

"So you're gonna let Alice plan the whole thing?" he hummed in amusement. "The tux, the reception, the guest list..." he listed off. "I mean, who knows who she's gonna invite?"

I laughed with him then. "Does it matter?" I asked curiously, to which his amused expression fell into a more serious one.

"I just don't know why you're doing this..."

"What? The wedding?" I raised a brow at that.

"No," he shook his head. "You're trying to make everyone else happy... but you're already giving away too much."

"You're wrong," I shrugged, as I stood from his lap and explained how, "this wasn't a choice between you and Jacob... it was between who I _should_ _be_ and who I _am_."

Harry didn't say anything, but he appeared to be hearing me out, so I continued.

"I've always felt out of step... like, literally _stumbling_ through my life. I've never felt _normal_ ," I shook my head, "because I'm _not_ normal. I don't want to be."

The corners of Harry's lips turned upward the slightest bit.

"I've had to face death, and loss, and pain in your world, but I've also never felt _stronger_ ," I said, "and more _real_ , more _myself_... because it's my world, too. It's where I belong."

"So it's not just about me?" Harry joked.

"No, sorry," I smiled at down at him then. "I've made a mess trying to figure all this out, but I wanna do it right..." I knelt before him, cupped his face in my hands, and told him, "I wanna tie myself to you, in every way humanly possible."

"Starting with a wedding," Harry concluded with a beaming grin.

"Actually..." I began, nervously biting into my lower lip, before saying, "something a little more difficult, first... and maybe even dangerous..."

As I stood once more, Harry's smile fell and his golden eyes held concern.

"We have to tell Mark."

"That's highly dangerous," Harry nodded with another bout of adorable laughter.

"It's a good thing you're bulletproof," I winked at him, before I added, "I'm gonna need that ring."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑
> 
> Thank you for reading Eclipse! 
> 
> This story will continue with Breaking Dawn.
> 
> Part 1 is coming very soon!
> 
> 🌤


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